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Correspondence, manuscripts, memorabilia, photographs, phonograph and tape recordings, and printed files. Included are Cerf's personal correspondence files, 1929-1945, and the diaries and scrapbooks which he maintained from his school days throughout his active career. The diaries, in date-book format, contain terse notes on Cerf's meetings with authors and friends, on his travels and publishing activities; the scrapbooks contain correspondence and photographs, as well as memorabilia and printed items, and were annotated by Cerf and his wife, Phyllis Fraser Cerf Wagner. Also in the collection are manuscripts and proofs for Cerf's books including "The Laugh's on Me""Treasury of Atrocious Puns""The Sound of Laughter""Stories to Make You Feel Better", and "At Random: the Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf", which was edited by Phyllis Cerf Wagner and Albert Erskine, 1977. The papers also include condolence letters written at the time of Cerf's death, photographs and photo albums,certificates and awards, and miscellaneous printed material, including Random House and Modern Library catalogues. Among the major correspondents are: Truman Capote, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Edna Ferber, Moss Hart, J. Edgar Hoover, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson, John Lindsay, Joshua Logan, John O'Hara, Jacqueline Onassis, Richard Rodgers, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gertrude Stein, Adlai Stevenson, Harry Truman, and Robert Penn Warren

Correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, scrapbooks, printed material, and photographs. The files contain much material of the League of Women Voters of New York State as well, and some material pertaining to the national organization. The files document the League's activities in the areas of voter registration, election reform, New York City government, foreign policy, ecology, and numerous other concerns, and contain the records of city, state, and national conventions, annual reports, and Board and Council minutes. Major correspondents include Emanuel Teller, Stanley M. Isaacs, Jacob K. Javits, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward I. Koch, John Vliet Lindsay, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Anna Lord Strauss, and Percy E. Sutton.

Personal and professional papers including correspondence, manuscripts, documents, diaries, journals, photographs, and printed materials relating to his teaching at various universities, his literary studies and writings, and his professional activities in such organizations as the Modern Language Association and P.E.N. His correspondents include contemporary authors such as Edmund Blunden, Christopher Hassall, Louis Kronenberger; scholars such as James P. Clifford, Leon Edel, and A.L. Rowse. There are also some letters collected by Halsband, including those by Mrs Piozzi, John Wilkes (1727-1797) and John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1792). Among the manuscripts are notes, drafts, typescripts, and proofs of his LIFE OF LADY WORTLEY MONTAGU (Oxford, 1956) and COMPLETE LETTERS OF LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU (Oxford, 1965-1967). Also, manuscripts and typescripts of Halsband's diaries, journals, lectures, articles, book reviews, and essays. The printed materials include ephemera, books, and offprints by Halsband and books by other authors inscribed to him. There is a watercolor portrait of Halsband by Stephen Andrews, London, ca. 1966.